Full-Text Articles in Political Science

The Guinea-Bissau Constitutional Reform Debate, Watson Aila Gomes

All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The enactment of law is not to be confused with the rule of law, and simply having a constitution does not guarantee political order. In Guinea-Bissau there have been calls to write a new constitution, but whether that helps Guinea-Bissau become a more stable country is questionable. Currently, there is a gap in the research of social science, history and political science examining how the processes of instability have unfolded in Guinea-Bissau. Few studies attempt to examine the correlation between a country’s stability and its constitution. A paradoxical situation exists in many countries in Africa where the political system ...

The Mapuche And Chilean State: An Analysis Of The State Reaction To Mapuche Protests, Mckenna Gossrau

Honors Theses

The history between the Mapuche and Chilean state is long and complex. Since 2000, the conflict between the state and Mapuche has periodically drawn wider public attention as well as public demands for change. In this thesis, I look to examine how the Chilean state has reacted to the demands of the Mapuche since 2000. Mapuche activists have protested violently and peacefully against state policy that has left many rural Mapuche impoverished and landless. This project assesses the impact of protests on state-Mapuche policy. The project also examines how deeply entrenched neoliberal fiscal policies of the state play a central ...

The Developmental State And Public Participation: The Case Of Energy Policymaking In Post-Fukushima Japan, Hiro Saito

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

After the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, the Japanese government tried to democratize energy policy-making by introducing public participation. Over the course of its implementation, however, public participation came to be subordinated to expert committees as the primary mechanism of policy rationalization. The expert committees not only neutralized the results of public participation but also discounted the necessity of public participation itself. This trajectory of public participation, from its historic introduction to eventual collapse, can be fully explained only in reference to complex interactions between the macroinstitutions and microsituations of Japanese policy-making at the time of the nuclear disaster: the macroinstitutional ...

Electoral College Reform: Past, Present, And Future Implications Of The United States Electoral College System, Madison Mckinney

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The United States’ Electoral College system has been a topic of debate for several years, gaining even more attention from the recent 2000 and 2016 elections. This has become a controversial topic throughout history for several reasons, but mostly because twice in the modern presidency, candidates have won the presidency by winning the electoral vote while losing the popular vote. This paper will examine the history and creation of the Electoral College, how the Framers’ intended it to function, several positive and negative factors of the current system, and compare arguments for and against Electoral College reform. Some reform options ...

Literacy And Democracy: Does A Causal Connection Exist?, Matt Wallack

Honors Theses at the University of Iowa

This paper attempts to determine if a causal connection exists between majority literacy and the formation of a democracy in a particular polity. After defining terms, I discuss the logic of testing necessary and sufficient conditions. Case studies of two ancient polities (Athens and Syracuse) and two modern polities (India and Russia) are undertaken to determine whether majority literacy is a necessary and/or sufficient condition for democracy. I conclude that claims regarding the causal efficacy of literacy on democracy have been exaggerated.

Why Do Some Individuals Abstain From Voting? The Impact Of Age, Education, And Confidence In The Court System On Voter Participation, Kristina Taylor

XULAneXUS

The purpose of this research is to discover why some individuals abstain from voting in America. Using this information, countries may be able to increase voter turnout amongst their population. Literature provided several theories as to why individuals abstain from voting. This research focused on the impact of: age, education, and confidence in the courts system. A regression was conducted using GSS 1998 survey data to observe the impact of these three variables on voter turnout. It was found in this model that age and education have a statistically significant impact on voter turnout, but confidence in the court system ...

International Social Science Review

This article, sourcing data from documentary sources and adopting descriptive and historical methods of data analysis, examines the most comprehensive and ambitious of the West African statesmen’ attempts at regionalizing democracy—the 2001 Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance. Specifically, it assesses member states’ performance with regard its provisions, in the light of contemporary realities. It argues that this framework and its precursors, when viewed against the background of their emergence, are another defensive strategy by West African leaders, in concert with the ‘development’ partners, to disguise the contradictions in the sub-region’s democratization process. It concludes that what ...

Democratic Stability In Senegal: The Effects Of The Education System, Political Problems, And Religious Conflicts, Megan Burdine

Languages and Literature Undergraduate Student Works

Although Senegal is a relatively stable democracy, there are still many instabilities within the system of education, with its political and economic situation, and with religious conflicts in the region are challenging its attempts at securing strong democratic stability and strong international relations. There have been several studies and experiments done to address these problems. Many of these efforts have been made by international organizations, which have primarily focused on improving the education system in the hope that this can lead to political and economic development. In my research of these attempts, I discovered that some of the biggest issues ...

Stability Through Economic Growth In Afghanistan, Abdul Qadir Khan

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the Afghan public’s opinion to identify the overall direction of the country, whether the country, in terms of economic growth, is moving in a positive direction or not. How do economic factors affect the public’s views on the direction of the country? Based on that, this study finds that economic growth has an effect on the Afghan public’s opinion on the country’s direction.

Afghans are not enjoying stability in their country yet, after the majority of Afghans accepted U.S. military intervention in 2001 and the establishment of the new government to end ...

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

For the purposes of legislative redistricting, Texas counts prison populations at the address of the prison in which they are incarcerated at the time of the census, rather than their home prior to incarceration—regardless of whether the prisoners themselves maintain a residence in their home communities and intend to return home after incarceration. This deprives those home communities of full representation in the redistricting process. Combined with Texas’s felon disenfranchisement laws, this also results in arbitrarily bolstering the representational power of some Texans on the backs of other Texans who themselves are unable to vote. All of this ...

Faith In Democracy: Korean Churches As Engines Of Pro-Democracy Protest, Will Matheson

Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Politics, Economics and World Affairs

This paper delves into the known aspects and political actions of Korean Christian churches to explore both their underlying causes and their broader social effects. Much of the scholarship on this period has pointed to the various actors who took part in the pro-democracy movement. However, it is equally important to explore the ties between these organizations, facilitated by the church as a social institution. While much scholarship has pointed out official joint-declarations and coalitions, this paper seeks to explore how aspects of the church itself created interpersonal networks among protesters and shaped their political action, not just as Christians ...

Political Science Faculty Publications

We examine the gap between perceptions of seeing referendums as an important democratic principle, versus perceiving how referendums are used in practice. We term this the “referendum disappointment” gap. We find support for referendums as a democratic principle is strongest among those most disaffected from the political system, and that the disaffected are more likely to perceive they are not given a say via referendums. We also find context-specific effects. Disappointment was greater in countries with higher corruption and income inequality. We also find higher disappointment among right-populist voters, those who distrusted politicians, and among people who viewed themselves at ...

Health Care's Market Bureaucracy, Allison K. Hoffman

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

The last several decades of health law and policy have been built on a foundation of economic theory. This theory supported the proliferation of market-based policies that promised maximum efficiency and minimal bureaucracy. Neither of these promises has been realized. A mounting body of empirical research discussed in this Article makes clear that leading market-based policies are not efficient — they fail to capture what people want. Even more, this Article describes how the struggle to bolster these policies — through constant regulatory, technocratic tinkering that aims to improve the market and the decision-making of consumers in it — has produced a massive ...

Ignoring The Learning Curve: The Failure Of U.S. Foreign Intervention In Chile And Afghanistan, Leanna Shea Nichols

Senior Theses

There are several identifiable and ubiquitous reasons why U.S. democracy building interventions fail abroad. The literature has shown that the principal reason that U.S. democracy building efforts fail is that they prioritize seeking immediate stability over creating long-lasting support for liberal democratic institutions. Additionally, contributing factors are also: lack of knowledge of the political history of a nation, lack of knowledge of the complexities within the domestic politics of each nation, lack of local and grassroots inclusion in planning processes, and the use of destabilizing covert and overt operations in an attempt at immediate results, with little force ...

Every Data Point Counts: Political Elections In The Age Of Digital Analytics, Julian Kehle, Samir Naimi

Honors Thesis

Synthesizing the investigative research and cautionary messages from experts in the fields of technology, political science, and behavioral science, this project explores the ways in which digital analytics has begun to influence the American political arena. Historically, political parties have constructed systems to target voters and win elections. However, rapid changes in the field of technology (such as big data, artificial intelligence, and the prevalence of social media) threaten to undermine the integrity of elections themselves. Future political campaigns will utilize profiling to micro-target individuals in order to manipulate and persuade them with hyper-personalized political content. Most dangerously, the average ...

Democratization And Democratic Peace., Sarah K. Simon

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

The objective of this study is to analyze the relationship between previous regime and democratization success to evaluate the impact of prior government system on a country’s transition to a democratic system of government. I use the Polity Project IV Democracy values for countries that democratized between 1978 and 2000 and identify the type of government as presidential or parliamentary to facilitate a bivariate analysis of democracy score and type of government prior to democratization. The chi-square test found the correlation to be statistically significant and I used case studies to show implications of unconsolidated democracies on the Democratic ...

They Sold Our Park! How Local Governments Fail At Democracy, Zandria Michaud

Global Honors Theses

In 2016 the city of Kent, Washington sold a public park to a housing developer. While this sale may seem typical, what was disconcerting to Kent residents was not only that they were losing a park, but also that they knew nothing of the sale. The entire process of selling the park to a housing developer had been in the works for more than ten years, and yet, no one thought to ask the residents about it. From this sale, several issues arose regarding city level government democracy and the role of citizens in policy decision-making. By critically examining the ...

History Of Military Interventions In Political Affairs In Pakistan, Hina Altaf

All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Military interventions in political affairs have hinder the process of democratization within countries like Pakistan. This single case study of Pakistan discusses why the military intervened into domestic affairs by discussing political, economic and social conditions within Pakistan after partition from India. This study shows that heavy reliance on the military post- partition decreased civilian authority and increased military supremacy. Moreover, this study also shows the shift from direct to indirect military intervention within Pakistan and concludes that the military will continue to influence political affairs indirectly if the elected civilian government threatens its interest.

Theses and Dissertations

Sovereignty is a contested issue in Islamist political thought. Although Islamists practically accepted liberal democracy in various forms across the world, they are yet to solve the normative paradox: how to reconcile Islam’s divine sovereignty to nation-state’s popular sovereignty. Normatively, Islamists advocating the divine sovereignty reject any human-constructed system that intervenes in the divine order and distorts God’s divine design. Some Islamists, however, attempt to move away from this interpretation of absolute sovereignty of God and consequently reinterpret Islamic thoughts and practices in a manner that is compatible with the ethos of liberal democracy. This study examines ...

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In 2017, Nepal held its first local elections in twenty years. These were the first elections held under Nepal’s new constitution, ratified in 2015, which transitioned the country from a unitary state to a Federal Democratic Republic. This case study analyzes the effect of the transition to federalism on decision-making and community representation in local governance in Annapurna Rural Municipality in West-Central Nepal. This study focuses specifically on education policy, one of the more public and contentious policy responsibilities devolved from the federal level to the local units under the new constitution. This research is based on interviews with ...

Honors Projects

The aim of this project was to explore how libraries, particularly academic libraries, intersect with voter education in promoting civic engagement. After reviewing research on the library’s role in democracy and civic engagement, I forged this connection through collaborating with librarians to develop an interactive workshop open to the Grand Valley community. The main goal of this workshop was to increase voter education and equip voters with tools to become better informed on candidates, legislation, and policy before the midterm elections of November, 2018. Participation in democracy is a lifelong practice and civic duty that begins with a strong ...

The Development Of Modern Innovative Foundations Of Democracy Is A Key Factor In Enhancing Opportunities For Sovereign Political Development, Idirov Ulug'bek Yusupovich

Oriental studies

This scientific article analyzes the importance of the conceptual ideas put forward in the address of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan to the Parliament of December 28, 2018. Special attention is paid to their importance in raising large-scale reforms in the country to a new level, carried out on the basis of an Action strategy. In particular, the issues of deepening globalization processes occurring in the world and difficult international situation under its influence, the need to take into account the international situation in the process of independent political development, the main tasks of further improving the effectiveness ...

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Scholarly research generally finds that democratic governments are more likely to respect human rights than other types of regimes. Different human rights practices among long-standing and affluent democracies therefore present a puzzle. Drawing from democratic theory and comparative institutional studies, we argue more inclusive or "popular" democracies should enforce human rights better than more exclusive or "elite" democracies, even in the face of security threats from armed conflict. Instead of relying on the Freedom House or Polity indexes to distinguish levels of democracy, we adopt a more focused approach to measuring structures of inclusion, the Institutional Democracy Index (IDI), which ...

Is Authoritarianism Bad For The Economy? Ask Venezuela – Or Hungary Or Turkey, Nisha Bellinger, Byunghwan Son

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Democracy is at risk worldwide. And the economy may be, too.

Seventy-one out of the world’s 195 countries saw their democratic institutions erode in recent years, according to the 2018 year-end report by democracy watchdog Freedom House, a phenomenon known as “democratic backsliding.” Signs of backsliding include elected leaders who expand their executive powers while weakening the legislature and judiciary, elections that have become less competitive and shrinking press freedom.

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The 2017 Qatar diplomatic crisis upset the traditional alliances of the Middle East. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt severed ties with Qatar, accusing Qatar of sponsoring terrorist organizations and compromising the Gulf Cooperation Council by strengthening relations with Iran. This article highlights the role of the Muslim Brotherhood within both Saudi Arabia and Qatar to demonstrate why the Islamist organization was an important piece in the initiation of the ongoing diplomatic crisis. Using two historical case studies, this paper reveals two divergent views of the MB in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The Saudi royal family views ...

Records Of The Institute On Religion And Democracy Presidential Papers Of Diane Knippers, Ats Special Collections And Archives

Finding Aids

Faulty Vision And Political Realism, Quinn F. Lewis

Senior Projects Spring 2019

This project responds to and expands upon Sheldon Wolin’s magnum opus, “Politics and Vision.” It critiques Wolin’s unnecessarily fragile conception of democracy, as being by nature “ephemeral,” and thus fundamentally non-institutional, by comparing it with the more pragmatic, realist approaches of two historical organizers, Saul Alinsky and V.I. Lenin. The project uses Wolin’s insightful analysis of the state of American politics under late capitalism, to ask, “What is to be done?” exploring the possibilities of organizing and political realism for the Left in the current day.

In Pursuit Of ‘Twin Toleration’: Democracy And Church–State Relations In Serbia And Montenegro, Marko Veković

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This paper explores the relationship between church and state in Serbia and Montenegro by examining the development of ‘twin toleration’. In particular, it aims to explain why there is still no ‘twin toleration’ in these states, and why it is important to impose such institutional arrangement in church–state relations. The ‘Twin toleration’ concept suggests that institutional arrangements between the state and religious communities in a democratic society should be based on mutual autonomy, in which the state should not interfere in the matters of religious communities, and vice versa. However, since the fall of communism and resurgence of religion ...